The Cypher

So the other day, I was down my hall and I saw a flier that caught my eye. This Thursday, there is going to be a cypher in Chapel Hill called "The Pit Spit." Being the die-hard rap fan I am, I know that I'm going to be there.

You may be asking yourself "What is a cypher?" It makes sense. The only time rap fans hear about cyphers these days are during the BET Awards.

This is from 2010's BET Awards, which is actually what introduced me to the concept of a cypher. Just in case you didn't know, a cypher is a freestyle battle that relies on "passing the mic," where it moves from rapper to rapper from right to left. If a rapper steps up too early, he is "breaking the cypher."

This is just as much an essential, historic part of hip hop as break dancing and DJ-ing. Cyphers are what rappers like Jay-Z and Biggie Smalls came up on. Freestyling is so organic at its core. You have a beat and you just have to go in over it. No excuses.

So when I saw that I finally had the chance to do a cypher, I knew I had to. Granted, I have no freaking clue how it's going to turn out. I haven't given freestyling a shot in months so I only have four days of preparation in all. Better believe that I'm going to be rhyming over every beat I hear until then. I'll give you the rundown on what happened this weekend.

Hugo (and Why I'm Angry About It)

Straight off of the bat, I'm going to go ahead and say that I love Martin Scorsese. The man is a film genius. Goodfellas, Casino, and The Departed are three of my favorite movies.

Now onto Hugo, the cute, young tale of an orphan boy who takes a wild adventure through Paris and the golden age of film. I saw it in 3D with my parents. It was just precious.

It was not worthy of a nomination for Best Picture.

I'm not going to argue about all of the other awards it's honored for because frankly, that is much more technical than I feel the need to be. Let's just look at the Best Picture field for a sec:

The Artist (2011): Thomas Langmann

The Descendants (2011): Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011): Scott Rudin

The Help (2011): Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan

Hugo (2011/II): Graham King, Martin Scorsese

Midnight in Paris (2011): Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum

Moneyball (2011): Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, Brad Pitt

The Tree of Life (2011): Nominees to be determined

War Horse (2011): Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy

As you can tell, there are some questionable choices (cough cough War Horse cough cough Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close cough cough). So maybe in this field, Hugo isn't such a stretch.

But at the same time...why? What does Hugo achieve to make it better than all of the other films this year?

It appeals to older voters. It is a retrospective of the golden age of film. And when you think that these older voters grew up on the films Hugo references, you can see why it got a nomination. Same with The Artist (which I haven't seen, but it is a black and white silent film about sound coming into the industry).

Hugo, aside from this, is nothing spectacular. The plot is extremely ehh. No major moral inquisitions or themes. Just old movies. It's probably the reason neither 50/50, Shame, nor Drive  got a nomination.

It's a sad day, indeed.

Tightrope (featuring B.o.B and Lupe Fiasco)

I have no idea how I missed this song. This is amazing. Granted, it did come out almost two years ago and B.o.B was still getting big at this time. But...This beat. It reminds me of much older blues. Maybe if Adele stopped being mad at the world, her music would get the happy vibe this song has. Just listen to this. Revel in its beautiful simplicity.

A Minute with Minutillo

Creative. Perfectionist. Competitive. This is Stephanie Minutillo in three words.

This may seem like an exaggeration, but to this UNC Chapel Hill sophomore, it is a perfect definition. She is a journalism anbd mass communications major, with a focus in either public relations or advertising, who is also considering majoring in studio art.

Stephanie grew up in New Jersey until the age of fifteen. She gets told that she should be on Jersey Shore on a regular basis, since she is both from New Jersey and of Italian heritage.

Freshman year of high school, she moved to Wilmington and stayed there until coming to Chapel Hill.

Unlike many other journalism and mass communication students, Stephanie doesn't do much blog reading. She does keep up with Twitter and Facebook. She has also found a new love in Pinterest. This probably comes from her passion for shopping.

As the licensing chair for Tri Delta, she is able to translate her passion and creativity into t-shirts for the sorority's many events. She has to design the shirts and work with t-shirt companies to give the sorority what it needs.

"I've been getting really good experience with dealing with people," she said.

Her creativity isn't just limited to t-shirt designs, however. In her basic design class, she created a book box, which she described as "perfect."

Her drive to be perfect translates into a competitive spirit. "I put a lot of pressure on myself to be the best at what I do."

Stephanie recently applied to a study abroad opportunity for Italian-Americans, which features an all expenses paid trip to Italy for the awardee. In her application, she cited her passion for art and culture. In March, she will found out if she got it.

Dope Sites

To become the rap fan that I am today, I did a lot of web surfing. Google became my BFF pretty quickly. Here are my top five sites for people trying to really get into the hip hop culture.

1. 2dopeboyz

This is definitely a big inspiration of mine in making this blog. Shake and Meka do a fantastic job of constantly uploading great rap, both underground and mainstream. You aren't going to get much rap news, just lots of free, new music.

2. Hot New Hip Hop

This is another free music website. I personally really like this site because of the way it lists all of the new songs dropped chronologically and in terms of "hotness." You don't have to do much looking around to find new singles or mixtapes.

3. Rap-Up

Everyone wants to know what their favorite artists are doing. This is a website aimed mainly at providing news. It does give some videos and new songs, but its focus really is on what is happening in the hip-hop world. If 2dopeboyz was Rolling Stone, Rap-Up would the New York Times.

4. Complex

Hip-hop isn't just music; it's a culture. This website is aimed at guys living the culture out, giving stories about fashion, girls, and even videogames. It really does a good job of providing articles that are interesting enough to keep me entertained and cause procrastination.

5. Datpiff

Mixtapes and rap go together, hand in hand. I can tell you that the first mixtape I ever downloaded was Young Money All-Stars. And where did I find it? Datpiff. It has mixtapes on mixtapes on mixtapes. More importantly, it lists the most downloaded mixtapes of all time, which is a great introduction to rap for anyone trying to get into it. The best part? They're all free!

Stay Schemin' by Rick Ross, featuring Drake and French Montana

Right off the bat, I want to go ahead and say that this is the first beat that has really stuck to me in a while. Sure, the beats on Take Care were good, but they don't really exist outside of the scope of the album. This beat, created by The Beat Bully, sounds like a T-Minus production (he did "I'm on One" and "Poppin' Bottles").

Now onto the lyrics. Personally, I despise the hook. There's something about French Montana singing "staaay scheeemiiin'" that I just don't like. It just sounds bad. It probably has something to do with the fact that he isn't a singer at all. Rick Ross has a mediocre eight lines. It's nothing but a setup for Drake's killer 32 bars. I don't know why Rozay keeps letting Drake on his tracks. He comes in and drops these extended verses that leave Rick looking like a fool.

Drake finally addresses the Common beef and does so in a way that disses Common, yet doesn't become a diss track. The first line sets the tone. "It bothers me when the gods get to acting like the broads." His next few lines aren't particularly noteworthy, until he says "Back when if a ni**a reached it was for the weapon/ Nowadays ni**as reach just to sell they record." Bam. Common gets laid out. And he's making a very valid point. "Sweet," the track Common wrote dissing Drake, has been heavily marketed as a controversial song. And this beef really is giving The Dreamer, The Believer some attention. Drake is just laughing at him, saying "You need a beef to sell records. I went platinum in a month."

There's only one more spot in this song that needs close attention. "Shawty wanna tell me secrets ’bout a rap ni**a/ I tell a [lady] its more attractive when you hold it down." For those who don't know, it is rumored that the core of this beef is a love triangle between Common, Serena Williams, and Drake. Along with finally admitting to having something with Serena, Drake is essentially saying he'd rather her get freaky than talk about Common to him. If that's not a low blow at Common, I don't know what is. I personally love the way this beef is heating up. It's surprisingly funny. In essence, it's between a "conscious" rapper and Mr. I'm Gonna Call You When I'm Drunk And Cry.

"Stay Schemin'" is 2012's first big song. I wouldn't be surprised if this got released as a single because quite frankly, the beat is hot and there is a pretty big lyrical punch. If this song is a taste of what's to come on God Forgives, I Don't, I can't wait.

About the Producer

Okay, in all honesty, I have zero producing skills. Or musical skills. Or even artistic skills, for that matter. All I can really do is write and listen. I'm currently a sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill, majoring in Journalism (with a focus in Advertising) and minoring in Creative Writing. Ever since my junior year of high school, I have been obsessed with rap, much to the dismay of my conservative Catholic parents. I'm currently a shift leader at Coldstone Creamery, so drop by and chat with me (Don't do that. I don't like to work at work). In my free time, I play videogames and risk my life by longboarding without a helmet. In any case, that's me and this is my blog. Enjoy.

The Business

I feel like the title says it all. If you're a hip-hop fiend like myself, you probably picked it up from the moment you got onto the blog. If not, sit back, enjoy the ride, and you'll figure out what I'm going for in no time. This is going to be another one of those "rap blogs," except unlike every other one:

A) I'm not giving away free music
B) I'm going to give legitimate commentary on songs, videos, and developments that go past "This is hot. Listen to it."

Don't just expect rap stuff on here though. I have a variety of interests, including movies, Parks and Recreation, and videogames. But the focus of this is hip-hop. And with that said, let the beat drop.